Hey Hey Y Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of the male perspective I am your host Lana Reed and today today on this day I have the pleasure of continuing my conversations with the wonderful amazing men of alpha alpha Fraternity Incorporated uh today I have the gentleman of to chapter out of University Illinois urana
Champ and uh quickly uh in a moment we will hear about how they are combining uh college life and the manly Deeds of the fraternity but first and foremost gentlemen as I always do I take a quick moment to pause say thank you to you for
Making time for me today time is a gift once we give it we can’t get it back so I truly appreciate you guys uh making time to sit down and talk with me and with that gentleman of the black and go welcome welcome to the show thank you uh
Like to thank you as well just for like said reaching out to us um just giving us the opportunity to speak so I definitely appreciate that as well we all appreciate it so awesome awesome it is always a pleasure when I see uh my brothers especially my younger brothers
Doing amazing things so we’re going to have a good time today uh first and foremost because I didn’t know who I was going to get uh showing up today so I’m I’m I’m unprepared in that manner could I trouble you guys to take a moment to introduce yourselves and what you guys
Are majoring uh in there uh at at the college right now all right I’ll go ahead first style um my name is Miles Moore I am president a attorney Incorporated T chapter um I’m a senior and I’m majoring in chemical and biomolecular Engineering well I’ll be
Darn okay go ahead and you sir hello everybody um well my name is salhab I’m the secretary of alpha Al Fraternity Incorporated tall chapter I’m in sen here at the University as well study of molecular cellular biology well I’ll be some very very smart smart brother
Okay all righty so what we going to do after college with those degrees where will they take you well you go ahead well well I’m considering grad school of course um then also just trying to find an entry level position at Health oriented organizations okay and you Mr
Moore um I can say I’m probably not going to do an engineering job I’ve done a few internships in very ious areas supply chain marketing just a whole lot of different things and I can say just the ones in terms of like specifically just strict engineering work is not
Necessarily what I would want to do career-wise it’s a good major in terms of opportunities and just in like the doors that opens up for you from a job availability standpoint but in terms of like what I actually want to do is definitely going to be more of the
Business R and I plan to work a couple years in some type of industry and then go get my MBA after that so awesome awesome so we’ll keep our eyes on you guys and see where we’re at in a couple of years okay okay so um as I was
Getting prepared for today’s show I see that your particular chapter uh has uh been around for quite some time like not too long after alpha alpha fraternity was actually um founded so could you run down the brief his history when you guys were charged with it and all of that yes
So we were charted uh Friday March 23rd 1917 so we’ll be 106 this year on uh March 23rd so it’s always a big celebration just people coming back in terms of chapter Bros from the past uh people reconnecting so we were the 18th chapter so fraternity
Overall was 1906 and then we were 1917 so we were one of the first chapters just ever founded in terms of alpha so it’s a lot of Pride behind it and like I said it’s always it’s a celebration every year because we’ve been around a
Very long time and takes a lot of work to continue to be around consecutively um and we’re just trying to maintain that and keep pushing the Legacy 100 over 100 before you guys were even thought about yeah before your parents were probably even thought okay okay and I saw some very
Prominent uh Brothers have come out of your chapter there was one picture on your social media one of the uh Brothers was standing behind President Joe Biden what was that event about all right you want to go ahead s uh I think uh not quite sure was the
Um that was the anti- lynching law yeah which it’s a good law definitely passed he could have passed lot earlier but um he was part of the people that um definitely pushed for that and got it signed by President Biden so it was a proud Moment Like I said we have a lot
Of like I said a long history a lot of years is under our belt so we definitely have a lot of people in terms of different places making moves politically financially um yeah different levels so like I said we have a lot of people in different
Places so that was just a good good moment for us just to see one of our brothers participating at something at that high of a level you know sitting behind the president getting something past for that mainly impacts um black Americans so awesome awesome you guys are doing some phenomenal work um just
Generations over and over again now since I have uh just the two of you today I have a little bit of time to be nosy here um for you guys individually was it an experience when you arrived at college or was it uh before you got to
College where you knew you were going to pursue Alpha oh oh I can answer let me go ahead and answer this so for me um I had no idea about Greek life at all actually I didn’t know what Greek life was in coming in of as a freshman in college um
And it was something to like really just research and see for myself and experience on campus and so when um when we first got here on campus Al fraternity corporated T out to the members of there they were doing a lot of programs our freshman year this was
Right before the time a couple months before covid uh came into existence you know ended our semester pretty early um but definitely that FAL semester you know um the the members of of Tom were very active towards light welcoming uh students on the campus especially us freshman um and a good
Example of that was the iig guys program they took advantage of getting positions in the I guys uh program um and this program is where uh students uh you ofis stud will try and help um the freshmen move in on campus either by giving them directions helping them with their
Belonging helping them find uh you know carts things of that nature because and not everybody’s going to know how to navigate the campus and so um so for at Florida Avenue residence Halls Pennsylvania AV Avenue residence Halls is where uh a majority of uh African-American students would stay at
Um and so uh during the moving days uh the members of to chapter would come and also help students move their things and belonging into uh you know their rooms and stuff and so that’s one of like the first memories that we had with members of the organization and that you know
Inspired me to also become a part and uh become a campus coordinator for the uh for the I guyss program now so that members of tall chapter can always be involved towards uh you know making that initial first like encounter with students to get to know them okay okay
So it was an experience and you said i i g o t that’s what you say no I guide I guide I guide okay just making sure my ears are not as sharp okay so it was when you got to campus and and you Mr
Moore did you know you were going to be an alpha before you got to college uh definitely not I wasn’t planning on being Greek at all in terms of like my experience in college I was kind of like adverse to it actually it was my mom is the Delta which is she has
A great relationship with her ships and everything but I just didn’t want to go that route just growing up um it just I just didn’t feel like it was for me just being like a part of a I’m a very like individualistic person so I just didn’t
Think going into it that that would be something that I will pursue in terms of joining a group of other people so when I got here I stayed in a predominantly white well I can’t even say predominantly like more than predominantly I was the only black person on my floor
So it was just pretty much the only White Hall um over at the ikenberry in the six-pack um so that was just an experience for me just coming from an area where at least half the people are about you know black or either ethnic at some level and then coming here and then
Everybody’s white so it was just like I said a culture shock for a moment um and then once I got into more involved in the black community got to know more people it’s a Titan a community I would say okay so once I got to know more
People that’s when I got to know people in different areas and different organizations people in Greek life and that’s kind of where it stuck out for me just in terms of tall Brothers what they were doing on campus on a like a multi high level impact like okay obviously
You know fraternities have parties and fun things like that but also at the same time they were doing service they were doing programs that were actually helpful that were helping me develop I had Bros reach out to me that are my profites that helped me get set on a
Professional level before I even started pursuing Alpha um help me with interviews just like I said helping me in a lot of different places just from a positive sense and then also like I said they were leaders on campus as well the black men’s group for the University uh men at impact
That’s the name of the organization I’m the president now before me when I was a freshman my profile was the president as well so like I said it’s a long string of leadership that to has that I recognize and that’s kind of something that resonated with me because like I
Said I like to be a leader I’m very individualistic as well so that stuck out to me which is kind of the reason why I didn’t want to necessarily in the beginning pursue something like a fraternity because I’m try to be such an individual but at the same time I’m I’m
A leader and that’s kind of like the main aspect of what I say a t outfit is here on campus is someone that’s a leader someone that stands out whether it’s organizationally or just the way they carry themselves so that’s something I noticed at a very early
Stage in my college career and then I definitely wanted to align myself with that because they were doing great things in and then after college so that’s you know when I started to get into learning things and just understanding uh you know the people in chapter what they were doing how they
Were leading and just like how their Journey was before that so Alpha of leaders I will say that from my years as undergraduate to um this age now you guys are truly leading across the board in every in every aspect um just out of curiosity U because I’m I’m sensing and
Hearing that this is a predominantly white um institution are the rest of the den divine nine there or or no uh we currently like everybody has been here in the past currently we have eight out of Nine the only nine active at the moment in terms of the chapter is Omega
SciFi so okay okay all right okay I got you now um let me move on to some of the things that I see you guys doing and and I want uh we we talked about this before but I want to let everybody know how uh
You guys are just a a small amount of guys doing some phenomenal things so how many guys do we have currently at to chapter yeah technically in chapter we have six um in terms of undergra so okay but I want to let the audience know don’t let the small number fool you
These brothers are these brothers are holding it down they holding it down so let’s get to uh some of the stuff that you guys are doing there on campus and off- campus as well now the first thing I uh want to do or ask you about and uh
I’m approach this as an old Auntie here like um what’s this what’s this barber shop thing I see y’all got going on oh uh that was during tall week in December so we call it t fade so pretty much it’s a staple for when we do tall week which
Is just a week of events I mean not tall week Alpha week a week of events we normally do around December 4th um for our founders day so that’s generally just we normally hire Barbers and then for anybody that wants to come in whether they students are not students
They can pretty much get a a free haircut um from a professional barber just paid by us so you know just promote self-image um especially in the black community so oh okay first I was like okay my the brother’s got side here okay I thought I said okay in addition to
Getting degrees they cutting the hair oh but you guys you bring barbers in okay it’s coming together it’s coming no we wouldn’t we wouldn’t mess people up like that oh well no I mean you know a lot of times we have to you know learn how to
Do things for ourselves because money is funny in college so you know very man so um continuing the tradition of uh doing amazing and wonderful things things uh that your chapter has done you guys are you know as well following the pack I saw on your social media a couple
Of years ago you guys won like seven awards at the uh Greek Oscars or something like that um so is that event kind of central to your your University and what awards did you guys win s you want to take this one oh I’m trying to
Let me think because it was it was a couple of words that we we wanted chapter of we had like the best uh like Founders week award that was definitely one that we worked hard to get because it was a lot of things that went into
Like even how we were trying to plan for our Founders week um let’s talk about even building up the hype for we tried to do a whole video production thing uh to build up like the theme we have like a mafia thing going on um and just of
How we were like every Greek like a lot of Greeks we play around with this but we have this whole concept of taking the yard basically trying to implement a whole bunch of programs for the for like the student Community you know to be able to engage in and get involved with
And so basically we had this whole Mafia scheme of doing it where we had this big meeting um and this us trying to decide okay what are we gonna do like basically how we would do it in our regular um weekly chapter meetings is how we were
Trying to frame it um and so we just came up with uh this Mafia style theme boom we’re gonna have we’re GNA rent out Elevate uh a trampoline park and you know have students be able to come over there uh you know for a lot amount of
Time and have fun that way in that manner and it actually is proved to be a great event we just did it again uh this past uh year because we started it uh last year back in 2021 um a very good event we even had we go as far as to
Having events like the millionaire panel where we have some of our profites that you know um have you made a a great living for themselves uh in their profession coming to talk to students about financial responsibili some of the you know just for any type of question they
Can ask for you know how to get up there pretty much or or make better decisions in their life to uh get them on on the right path towards a successful type of life um even talking about cryptocurrency because uh last year cryptocurrency was um always making
Headlines it was booming and so uh some of our profs as well have some knowledge on nfts and cryptocurrency as well so we had them come and talk to some of the students here on the cus about that so uh that was just one of the awards for
Chapter of the year um and then we had uh some of our our last chapter president uh uh de Munos who’s working with the Pelicans right now um in New Orleans he uh also won a w a like it was an award towards a Greek a member from
Any type of organization uh putting on like just being outstanding basically and so uh Deon MOS he he won that because his work as a chapter president last year was pretty phenomenal with his involvement on campus uh aside just from working uh in Alpha but in other works
As well and you know just even being sort of a voice on campus for students to listen to and take heed from so I feel like Mr Moore also now miles he does a great job of impen it doing the same thing now so y so he just follow we just following
The tradition pretty much yeah I saw Mr Moore uh on a uh news station recently for the uh Martin Luther King Day of Service did I see that correctly we both were on there actually yeah okay okay awesome awesome so um everybody oh well a lot of people
Participated in Martin the King Day of Service Across the Nation but particular uh in in specific what did your chapter do also go ahead I didn’t want to questions but so basically we collaborated with um our graduate chapter the Z Chapter of alpha alpha Fraternity Incorporated one of the
Many um graduate chapters alumni chapters that Alpha offers um and then so we collabed with our graduate chapter as well as the gamma chapter of alpha cppa alpha sority Incorporated and their grad chapter as well and what we did was we were uh in the Eastern F Bank uh in Urbana
And we were backing up oranges and boxing them up for about about two hours and we were like it it was like the work that we got the amount of work that we got done was actually unexpected by the f b they didn’t expect us to get all of
That work done in such a a short lot amount of time so um that really just um very motivating on the day of service for Martin Luther King and then you know us being able to explain you know what our chapters do and what we’re focused
On as well of was also very motivating for us to be be able to you know continue doing the work um and just having an opportunity to get it broadcasted on the news so that’s just a little bit of the type of service that we trying to do you know with
Our lifelong you guys will be at it for lifelong now you mentioned that you partnered with some graduate chapters do you guys get a chance to um uh partner with other undergraduate graduate chapters in your area often or is that unique yeah so the main graduate chapter
That we partner with in terms of programs is Zeta Z Lambda for our it’s our grad chapter essentially for the area so a lot of T brothers are actually part of Zeta zda ones that stayed in the area after college so a lot of there’s a
Lot of T in Zet isda so we have a good connection with them as well as our graduate adviser for chapter he comes to our meetings and kind of oversees our events he’s part of that chapter as well so we have events we have to do every
Year just in terms of alha like certain uh four different types of programs we have to do do to just maintain our status in terms of alpha okay A lot of times we do that with them they have a lot of food drives they also do a lot of
Fundraisers I say grad chaps is like we do a lot more programs in terms of like quicker programs for students educational financial literacy and then like I said we have like social events and shows and things like that on campus and they do a lot more a lot heavier on
The community service and the financial end in terms of being able to raise more Capital uh that we are just not able to do college so and they they have a lot more members because once you out of college you can become a grad chapter member so they have members from 23
Until you know their 70s so like I said they have a lot more resources so we make sure we partner with them a lot and they partner with us um we get a lot a lot done like even through uh the mar Luther King Day event
A lot of that came through them a lot of them showed up as well so awesome awesome awesome now um listening to you talk and working with the grad chapters and and Mr Mo I want to know how that is working out for you transitioning from being Mr individual
To being part of the group are you you working that out oh yeah I I worked it out I never I never had a problem with being part of a group I it was never like an issue for me it’s just I didn’t want to I guess I had an image of
Assimilation in my head when I came to college um in terms of a Greek life perspective and that’s not necessarily what it is in fact every body everybody’s an individual and that’s kind of part of what makes us just specifically as a chapter gr because a lot of chapters you have certain
Individuals that are kind of similar and a lot of similar type of people um and the diversity in terms of characteristics of our chapter is really what makes us have the ability just span out and do the different types of things we can successfully like we have people
That you know know this or know that or one person that knows 5,000 people on campus and one person that can put together a financial program you know it’s just it’s like I say it’s a group of individuals especially like as as even right now like more than I’ve seen
In the past just specifically right now the people we’ve had over the last year just in terms of like the team we’ve had has been we can pretty much do anything we want we’re in every area we have all the resources so yeah we’re better together just have to make use of those
Resources pretty much which we try and do every month every week trying to at least have like especially for this past fall semester we Tred to um basically Implement a program every week every week had to be and even and what we did uh this uh
This past semester in the fall um you know having a whole collaboration with um uh gamma chapter of alaa alaor Incorporated which hasn’t really been done in in years um on our campus and so we felt like it would bring a breath of of like a fresh air to because the cus
Has never seen nothing like that and you know I think it would make happy the type of collab that we have because the gamma chap of Al already incorporated as well they have a lot of resources they’re very solution and goal oriented you know always ready to work like we
Are so it just made sense for us to try collab and get something done and we really did we had a whole like Halloween weekly special pretty much for campus and so that’s where the frightful convers came in and we even had the whole haunted house thing and we worked
Pretty good us collabing so definitely set a great standard for us collabing in the future and you know having the potential to do even greater scale events awesome awesome awesome well let me get into um because I can see now we could talk for a little while here um
Let me get into some of the stuff that you guys are doing I want to kind of let everybody know um one of the things that I saw that you guys had packaged together in this string of events was um what first first vote where you guys
Were uh getting uh voter education and knowledge around and I kind of I had a a a thought about that or something I want to ask you guys when it comes to college lifestyle and do you find that um is there too much going on or or are
College students kind of engaged and interested in understanding the voting process I mean because when I was there I was like I I got other things to do so how yeah I would say in terms of like a lot of what we do focuses on the black
Community and I would say just in terms of voting I would say there’s not as much of an emphasis I’d say from like you know University staff and those they try and emphasize it for us but just within the actual students there’s not as much of a focus for people to vote or
Get educated on necessarily what who we’re voting for the different types of Elections or what positions they hold or how that necessarily impacts what actually goes on on a governmental and state scale so I would say that’s kind of why we had that event at the time we
Had it around voting season is just one because a lot of people aren registered um especially coming to college like I didn’t turn I turned 18 while I was in college okay so I wasn’t at home with my parents who would drive me up to make
Sure I registered Vote or made sure I did at home so that’s why we have events here for people who don’t have that or they didn’t get signed up at homes to sign up in college on own accord um and then they can become active like voting
Citizens so that’s part of that uh event making sure people know how to register and then also just kind of like the process of like what a pole looks like how to fill it out and just some background information as well so okay so is it easy to vote in that area is
There voting locations close by uh campus or no um there’s voting locations on campus yeah I’m GNA say it’s easy um what’s that for it’s easy yeah well honestly just speaking from my perspective I have a vehicle and not a lot of college students you know had
That luxury of having a vehicle so with me being able to utilize my vehicle and be able to go register myself to go vote I think that was back in my sophomore year I was able to do that because I could drive but not every college
Student has the access to do that so that was one of the many reasons why we even thought of hey let’s do the Aon event now um you know during that week um and I you know I think it was uh you know although I mean you know which is
Okay that we can’t influence the you know personal decisions on who to vote for you know or what to vote on exactly just letting people giving people the information and the resource to be able to uh know how to uh you know utilize their Civics um you know also can help
Get the job done as well so okay yeah I appreciate us for doing that for thinking of doing that very important I mean you you know you got to start like I said college life is so complicated and complex there’s so many stressors and so many things going going on so
It’s kind of hard to get people to focus on everything and anything so it it’s understandable but you know you kind of got to plant that seed you got to plant that seed now another things that you guys put together uh was uh uh frightful conversations and you guys discuss
Relationships and as I’ve said a couple of times you know my college days were many decades ago but I I do recall it being interesting uh when it came to male female relationships and Dynamics but here we are in 2023 how from a male perspective because
This is the male perspective show uh how are relationships and college life in these 2023 days what’s what’s what’s going on with you guys there well honestly a lot like I I would say like in terms of relationships I’m not really sure about how it was back then in terms
Of how it is now but what I can say for now is that some people like relationships are just the same way is that it’s how you make it pretty much and so some people may alter their their motives when it comes to relationships based off of what other people are doing
Maybe it might be Pier to impress or whether it be off of social media to show or to post or whether it’s genuinely wanting something you know all of these reasons are pretty much the same reasons for any type of relationship um even back then s to
Speak so I would say like honestly when it comes to like relationships I would say they haven’t diverged much but I mean I guess more people like I guess with social media having more of a presence in our lives now and an impact it could it could definitely alter somebody’s mind on how
They would frame a relationship to be based off how somebody else is portraying it to be as if that makes sense AOS faad they want to be like what they see on social media half of that stuff is not really uh genuine and true okay right right and so it really just
Takes for an individual to realize what they’re necessarily looking for in another person when it comes to relationship um and you know realize what they can also give to that person how to make yourself better you know and to also know what you know what what
What would you want um and so I guess when we you know had the frightful conversations uh you know what I tried to do because I was one of the panelist speak actually both of us was panelist speakers and so you know when it came to in you know some of the questions
Because I think we we did poll questions for the students uh to ask us and uh we bring it up and try and answer to the best of our knowledge so when it came to like answering questions I would try to qualify it I don’t want to necessarily
Um you know come from like a patriarchal standpoint or anything like that what I want like what my whole goal when you know be when I was being a panelist speaker speaking on you know relationships was to give you know a candid answer more of a fair answer
Towards you know one how is this relationship going to better you and you know how can you better the relationship um you know as you know for yourself and for the other person that you’re in a relationship with you so so I was trying
To you know make it more of a candid uh type of approach when it came to answering questions so all right all right what I would say for that is I mean during that conversation what I try to focus on was like Communication in terms of just being open and being able
To communicate between the people I agree with what s said though also about the social media thing especially today um it leaves a lot of space for comparison and comparison leads to a lot of just thinking of what else could be if you’re looking at somebody else you’re looking at somebody else’s
Relationship um looking at somebody else’s money or whatever it is or another someone who looks more attractive in your opinion than whoever you’re with it’s just always a a space to compare and think of what else rather than working on what’s in front of you
And I think that’s a lot of the problem that a lot of people have currently today I mean that’s why I don’t have social media like at all I don’t have Instagram or Twitter or anything I deleted it but well that’s unique for a young person well a younger than me
Person I should say no social media no I I really don’t have one I have a I have a Snapchat for like posting in terms of like events and stuff because that’s the easiest way to do that like I post Alpha events and impct events but that’s all I do like I
Don’t I never post myself it’s just I just don’t see any posi I think it’s bad for the spirit um in my opinion but just during that conversation like the main thing I was trying to FOC on was just communication openness between two people and then I
Said just make sure you appreciate the person you’re with so that’s that’s the main thing uh just be nice to each other okay so I hear you talking and it sounds good but uh from what you see on campus is that happening or not no I mean but
Honestly honestly it’s both it’s both it’s both it’s like it’s but I feel like it’s always going to be that that’s why I literally said things haven’t really diverged from you know from the beginning of time when it came to relationships people are gonna act the way they’re gonna act regardless you
Know what I’m saying so social media didn’t make it difficult though back in the day did it or did it not like Grandma grandma didn’t have to look at Grandpa’s post and see why’ you like that girl’s Post 10 times okay that’s true that’s true but it was probably another way
Like I don’t want to say like back then social media like was it like whatever it was I I would say like there was probably a different form of that like why did you like this person supposed to why did you take this for this person
Back then if you if you feel what I’m I would say that it’s both like there are some students here that are able to actually keep a healthy type of relationship on campus um and then there are some students that that can’t it’s not all social media
Though anyways either but I mean even on the social media Point like like I said back I guess you could say in the day um there wasn’t like it just expands your circle like social media can connect you with somebody three states away that you could talk to and that just wasn’t
Really happening as much back then it’s like the people you grow up with or the town you’re around or the people in your vicinity is your pool of selection in terms of who you’re going to be with you get a date now if you’re with somebody right now you’re pulling selection as
The entire planet so if you got thousands more people coming your way in terms of options and which a lot of relationships are about as options um it’s going to be hard to choose so yeah and then and wearing those letters complicates the issue a little bit more
Too as well because the ladies love the letters so yeah I’m a relationship person he’s the one with the girls what okay me I’m dump this on you real quick honestly honestly for us like especially within our chapter like most like we’re we’re pretty wholesome guys um I don’t
Like like personally and I I pretty sure miles can attested this too like none of us is really looking at here to you know manipulate like I’m seeing like within our current day and age when it comes to relationships and stuff like a lot of people feel manipulated by one another
Um used you know certain things certain things aren’t being met boundaries are being crossed you know things of that nature um and even though yes I’m also invalidating that by saying that this has happened this is nothing new this always happens um you know when it comes to relationships at the beginning of
Time that doesn’t make it okay and so you know as campas Leaders you know us being you know Bros a part of a t chapter and you know all eyes being on us when it comes to us when we post events and stuff for people to come to
We try and also just maintain the image of you know doing the same thing when it comes to relationship so you know I mean I know that me and mil G test this let me let me let me get you guys out the hot seat let me get you guys out
The hot seat here real quick because I don’t know somebody uh might look at this later and some lady that’s got her eyes on you might be like well you say so let me get you guys out the H um I also saw on your social media gentlemen that you guys have uh
Incorporated some Innovative stuff here you guys have popup shops what goes on at your popup shops okay uh I can say that um so po like if we have a event so for example we had during tall week on the Thursday wait the Friday Thursday and
Friday I believe yeah I think yeah I think that was Friday and Saturday it was Friday and Saturday um for Access granted which is the biggest show in terms of black community like during the false semester it’s like all the teams that are like modeling dancing singers
Dancers um they all perform and our show so we ran out like the biggest Hall on campus full Wier Hall and we basically give them a platform to perform it’s a competition people vote there’s a there’s a winner people come sometimes from different schools or non-university entities and then they perform and then
Like I said it’s basically a talent show so it’s a really big event we have like 350 plus people in attendance um so also like the day after that we had elev lock in which is trampoline park um from like 10 p.m. to 4: in the morning which we
Have like 150 people come to so that’s another one that we have to sell tickets to as well as like the access granted so we have popup shops like we’ll say on the popup Shop flyer title popup shop for Access granted Elevate date time location we’ll be here this time to this
Time on this dat this time to this time on this date uh make sure you come and get your tickets and then that’s kind of how we organize our sales for events like that okay okay now um you guys both mentioned you guys are both seniors did I hear that correctly
Yes so um also Incorporated in you guys also have to bring in some new Alphas so do we have some younger brothers coming in soon well I mean time will tell yeah I mean yeah eventually eventually eventually yeah we we got to pass down the torch just like yeah ours pass down
The torch to us so time will tell you know who will be a part of our organization and um you know how they continue to uphold what our organization stands for um and the work that we try and Implement on campus and stuff but for now it’s yeah we’re just saying that because
We’re just saying that because we can’t like give the exact date just because of like the way fraternity like exact semesters and stuff just because the way the fraternity works we can’t technically like say at this time period but yeah for sure there there’ll be more
People well let me let me ask you this how how large is the black community there at your campus I want to say it makes up 4% oh I believe we’re at okay 4% okay so yeah I know like I know my I think it’s four I know from my program or like
Engineering it’s like .9% less than 1% but I think overall it’s like four or five something like that okay okay so we got a small pool we’re working from in the first place as is yeah well but then it’s Al like honestly like considering like the amount of black people that we
Have on campus like I would say like it is it’s okay amount I mean it’s still predominantly white Institution for but it’s U ofi at the same time so there are a decent amount of like black students that we have you know that are able to attend our um you know events and
Sometimes you know and it’s a lot of students that don’t know about our events still you know and so you know that’s why we still want to continue to work still want to get ourselves out there so that more people can get involved with our programs on campus
Because we never know how it can affect them okay okay so were you gentleman from that area is that why you picked that particular University or how how did you pick that that college that University I’m from Chicago suburbs so it’s kind of like I was going to the
Engineering program too so it’s kind of it’s the top 10 engineering program in the country okay so that’s kind of my main decision also was in state tuition rather than out of state tuition so it’s like four times less than if I was to go private school or to a different state
So it was just a good choice financially and just in terms of the program I was going into so okay yeah U ofi offered a lot of um Financial ease um definitely um with like President Awards and tuition and then also like me having some additional scholarships to help out with that and
Then also the close proximity towards home because I’m I’m from Chicago southside the south side of Chicago on 79th um so you know it’s not it’s not really a hassle for us to get back home you know when it comes to family and stuff um and I mean honestly it was a good
Choice a lot of my family members have gone to this school okay so when it came to like thinking about colleges like I did apply to other places but I already knew that I was going to end up coming to ufi anyway so I was very POS with my
Decision okay okay awesome now we’ve talked about what you guys do on campus and you know we gota got a little Peak that we might have some younger ones coming along and and I don’t think a lot of Outsiders looking in don’t understand that in itself takes a lot of time to uh
Produce the next line that is a a very time consuming thing um so you guys are got a lot of stuff going on here but but um you guys still in addition to that do work off campus Community work off campus what are some of the things that
You’ve done over the years off campus in community service oh go ahead go ahead no you okay uh well so definitely so last year when we had a tall week we were uh we had the opportunity to work with our graduate chapter um at the Boys and Girls Club
Where we were just uh we were doing a lot of Recreational Sports okay um you know and that’s just one of the many things that we do when it comes to like the schools for example I remember like earlier miles have brought up some of the mandatory programs that we have to
Uh you know do whether it be on campus or off campus and one of the one of the programs that we did last year is coming up again soon for us to do this year is called project Alpha where uh we went to one of the high schools um here and we
Were talking about uh sexual health and education to some of the high schoolers here um mainly the male students um actually and so you know we were just talking about you know uh information and now is when it comes to you know relationships and it comes to uh you know having sex
And making those right decisions for your health and stuff like that just you know making your conscious of what to do you know for high schoolers because I mean you know there’s team pregnancy that occurs and so we’re making uh teenagers aware of that as well just you
Know trying to you know be that big brother for some of the kids out here um you know because it’s not like like when I see you know champagne and Urbana it’s not a place that we grew up in we grew up in Chicago but um you know just
Looking at the kids that that grow up here you know we want to help you know try and Foster uh something good for them to grow up on yeah and we we also do work with like he said a lot with children but we also do work with
Sometimes like the homeless shelter like we did last semester okay so me and my nails will make bags and have toothbrushes soap water things like that and we deliver to the homeless shelter um we did that last semester we also do like cleanups like Park cleanups area
Cleanups just in terms of like littering so we we do try to keep a variety of things and then sometimes just in terms of service we’ll do like awareness um kind of just whether it’s like alcohol or sexual assault just things like that that’s not necessarily like community
Service outside of campus but just something that brings attention to certain topics that are important um we have a annual Powderpuff game for breast cancer um so we raise money for that and then we have teams of of girls do a Power Puff game which we coach for like
A month and a half which is a lot of effort but yeah we we try to yeah very it’s a lot when because you even brought it up that college students have so many things that they have to do and so imagine you know even after class
Some students are getting out as late as five or six o’clock and then have it to you know try and go to a practice you know every day to practice for a big game um you know for fundraising and stuff like it’s it’s a lot of time
Commitment and you know a lot of effort on both sides with the girls and with the members of to so but we do it y’all make it happen yeah y’all make it happen well Brothers I have I think two more questions I want to ask you before I ask
My random question um maybe three more questions my first question is who played Steve Harvey on Family Feud who was the brother that played Steve Harvey that was me a okay okay all right all right oh my goodness you I ain’t mad at you IAD at you you
Know look it was the um you know I gave what I said that it was of for FAL semester like we were really you know pushing events every week and you know with the whole Steve Harvey thing happened that happened when we was doing our collaboration fam week with the here
On our campus um man you know some of my friends are you know a part of alpha cap Alpha Incorporated and so they helped me uh you know get the whole Steve gimmick image uh look going on for the event and you know honestly we did it because that
Was a lot that was a lot to put into one week and the whole Steve look took like 30 minutes took 30 minutes to an hour well now that I now that I hear that there’s only six of you and I was like I said I was going through social media
Media to prepare for today but and now that I know there’s only six of you and seeing that the work that you guys do manage to produce I mean I mean just Doos because it ain’t it ain’t easy I’m it’s not easy you know I mean you gota
You got College you got I don’t know if anybody’s working you got it’s just so I mean just hand claps to you that you guys are actually making this happen so we appreciate that one one more question one more fun question before I ask a serious question um auntie auntie
Lana has uh frequent uh Flyer points on her credit card so she might want to fly up there from time to time but I’mma pick my time and that time would be when would I be able to purchase some more of these pies to uh uh have this so because
I saw y’all taking some pies to face that’s like a fundraiser we do so normally we do it in the fall so next time we probably do it in the fall so it probably won’t be during a week so it probably just be something we do normally at the beginning like live in
Illinois we have like a certain amount of time period to do certain things that are outside yeah so like literally our time span to do stuff like that is like between August and September or like May so we’ll probably August September time period because once it gets cold it’s
Normally too cold so okay okay I got you all right honestly got lucky we honestly got lucky last year doing it in March it was still B chil okay I was like they they they took one for the team okay yeah all right well let me let me ask you a serious question
Before I ask you my random question um you guys have been at this college lifestyle for a minute so if you guys had to um you know sit down and have a conversation with some graduating high school seniors or maybe some incoming freshmen and you had to give them some
Advice on how to uh manage college life uh and get the best out of the experience uh what would you what advice what tips would you give them definitely definitely asking because like just now like in our senior year there’s some like programs that the school offers that we’re just now uh
Becoming aware of um and and so I can’t imagine like how many students you know end up graduating here without being able to utilize s of programs that would have probably helped them in their academic career uh me for example I just joined Dre which is like the disability
School because you know I have like a chronic illness with my stomach and you know it was affected it started to affect my performance a little bit uh last year you know with trying to study for exams um like in chemistry biology physics um and then also trying to
Maintain you know my volunteer role on campus trying to be a leader within Alpha and then also in other programs as well trying to help the things get going so it started to take a little bit of a t my on my health and you know I had to
End up requesting you know to become a part of the disability school which I got you know and it’s definitely helped me when it comes to like getting extra time when it comes to exams and trying to get prepared and so I’m only bringing
That up um so that you know we know that it’s a lot of programs that students may not be able to you know get into that will help them in terms of like uh benefiting them in their academic career so when it comes to college student um incoming college students and high
School senors I would say definitely like when they have workshops a lot of these workshops will talk about some of the programs that the school offers so and then also um in the beginning like in the beginning week of like school for freshman uh there are some programs that
The school wants freshman to go to and like certain videos for us to watch and so I would definitely say like pay attention to those things because they definitely highlight some of the um some of the programs that the school offers like especially likea and stuff like
Like a lot of people actually don’t know abouta um and so that’s why some of the our brothers in our chap actually working forsa one of them was the president and you know he was working solely so that students that look like him uh you know would know more and
Become more aware about what you the programs and stuff thatsa like uh stuff that programs likea that the school offers and what they can give um to students so definitely awesome definitely that and you president Mr Moore um that’s a lot so let me think just in terms of things I would
Either say that I did right or would change one would be just in terms of professional sense make sure you like go to Career Affairs and take advantage of things like that uh that was a good opportunity for me I got my first internship like two weeks after I showed
Up in col when I was like 18 and that set me up pretty good from a career standpoint in terms of knowing what I didn’t want to do and what I did want to do and then looking for other options from there so just on a professional
Standpoint I will say there’s a lot of options at University of Illinois or just any college so make sure you take advantage of those from a career standpoint uh and then in terms of overall I would just say don’t waste your time there’s only a certain amount
Of hours in the day you can get caught up that’s the main reason I to leave like a lot of my social medias and stuff too because you would just spend time and hours just sitting and looking at other people hanging out on the yard yeah just Tik
Tock Tik Tok I see a lot a lot of our peers a lot of our friends will be attached to their phones for like hours looking at Tik Tok videos and it’s like yes it’s entertainment yeah yeah and now I can’t even do it like it makes me sick now because just
Like I could just be doing so many other things um so that’s one thing is just like don’t waste your time set a schedule stick to your schedule make lists and then also another part is make sure you network and get to know as many people as possible that doesn’t mean
Like you have to go out and party and do a whole lot of other things but if that’s not you but it’s making sure you get to know people build relationships because that’s kind of the main thing a lot of times you’re building colleges relationships even like that comes in
Handy now if we’re doing Alpha stuff we need to schedule a room or make a reservation have somebody some organization reach out to them it’s way easier to call somebody or text somebody rather than send an email and wait three to five days for a response or something
Like that so making connections and getting know as many people possible and then also get involved because like I said this is a reflection of life um you’re going to have work you’re going to have other responsibilities so make sure you like I said don’t waste your
Time make sure you max out um on the things you can do responsibilities leadership roles professional things don’t overwhelm yourself depending on your limits but make sure you do the most that you can like because it’s only a certain amount of time yes indeed and
We’re trying to trying to get to the end goal trying to get to the end goal we can’t get well I I have like one more advice tip too definitely get acquainted with professors as well because some professors are like that’s also another that’s basically pigy backing off of
Networking um not only networking with people that are similar to you in age but networking with your professors is because you never know how that can help you in terms of when it comes to how pursuing higher education like PHD programs in graduate school you need recommendation letters for that um even
If you’re in you know fields of science where they may require you to do research like I’m doing been doing research hours for about a year now um under a graduate mentor and a professor and so a lot of students have to be required for that um especially in uh
STEM related majors and so the only way that you know some students can get that is through connection does that Professor know you well enough to test your character um and how you perform academically and you know how is this student oriented and stuff like that so that’s kind of important to get
Connected with some of your professors you know a lot of professors especially here at youi when it comes to STEM related fields are a part of a lot of Greater scale projects and stuff like that and a lot of them are accredited as well so it definitely helps to give
Recommended by people with that standard awesome awesome well Brothers I am so impressed not only you know for you guys being men of alpha 5 Alpha but you know in your individual own unique right you know you just are just phenomenal men and um I am truly expecting you know to
Peek in about 10 years 15 years from now and and seeing some wonderful things and maybe 20 30 years from now somebody might be some high prominent members of alpha alpha you know so you know I’m I’mma keep my eye open and look but I’m going to ask you guys my random um
Question and then I’m going to ask you to tell me what your social media handles are uh Mr Moore so that if somebody wants to check you guys out you know and see what you guys are up to they can do that so let me ask question here let’s see what we’ve
Got oh lifestyle let’s see how this plays out what’s the one thing you always procrastinate on me it’s La reports I hate writing lab reports um it just it really just hurts me to write them I just don’t like them I don’t know because my labs are so long
I have like four hour Labs every week and the lab reports are like 12 pages and it’s normally not stuff that like really interest me so it’s just like it’s just really it’s very painful to write but yeah four hours yeah 12 Pages something about that yeah bless you my
Child wait I just I mean you guys have probably managed to make like 36 hours in a 24h hour day I just I mean between College like is you guys are working as well he has a job I don’t well yeah I’m currently getting another job because I
Was unemployed for a little bit but yeah I have a job I’m gonna be working at the park district uh with with uh some children um and looking forward to seeing how that goes try to be able to have more of a direct um approach towards influencing some of the young
People some of the youth live here on campus and you know showing them that that Alpha way basically well answer the question sir how what do you procrastinate on so what I probably procrastinate on honestly I would say emails definitely um because I sometimes I get a lot because miles even talking
About this to he said uh even being connected with the campus on so many levels and so I would say I proud myself of being connected as a social butterfly with a lot of people professors students me emailing my academic advisor so many times um I like I don’t know like I have
To get myself I I don’t take too long to respond but I have to get myself in that mode where okay I gotta respond to this person okay I need to talk to this person this I need to let this person aware of this I need to talk to this
Professor about this sometimes that happens on some like throughout the week and so I just have to just put my like really lock in and and you know respond but I I don’t take that long it’s not too bad not too bad we Ain got to wait
We ain’t got to wait for you for six months H well gentlemen from Auntie Lana I I I cannot say it enough I’m so proud I’m so impressed um I’m pretty sure you get a lot of pats on the back but you know you’ve got a another one coming from me
I’m just so proud of you guys and and keep it up and I’m expecting good things and like I said the next time I’m out that way I’ll have my uh what you guys are talking about cryptocurrency and all that stuff I don’t know if I have to buy
Some to buy me a pie or anything are we at that point now in college where we’re paying for books and classes with cryptocurrency or no no no we not there oh okay I just was Wonder okay all righty but uh yeah I’m just expecting to
See nothing but a onward upward from you guys okay definitely definitely awesome awesome thank you guys for making time for me that is all for this week’s episode of the male perspective I’m your host Lana Reed and I will see everybody next time
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